Do You Watch Video on an iPod, Too?

[BoulderBum]

So I was pondering movie download services today and thinking about what I think a lot of the analysts miss when making comparisons of streaming devices.

Everyone points to XBox 360 and how it can play Netflix, or Vudu with its 1080 streaming service, but I think they miss one of the biggest advantages of the Apple approach: you get to take your media with you on your iPod!

I don't know of any other system which handles portable devices elegantly (some players like the Zune are technically capable, but awkward in practice).

I wonder, however, how many people take advantage of the capability. I personally watch TV shows on the train ride to work at times and we plan to take movies with us for my baby daughters to watch on the Thanksgiving plane ride, but how many others out there utilize that capability?

 

[dukebound85]

my biggest pain is this

converting for ipod

i just wish i could use my already ripped digital files and not have to reconvert them (like how you can just resize a quicktime movie)

 

[inigel]

Because Australia is usually the last place to receive anything, my movie collection is mostly DVD rips.

 

[Michael CM1]

I use my iPhone to "watch" the Rachel Maddow podcast on the way to work. I really just listen to it, but I glance at the video at instants.

I used my iPhone to watch a movie while on a trip once. It was kinda weird because I didn't feel like holding it and I couldn't find a good angle. Some sort of portable docking sound system that you could rotate would be nice for travelling. Maybe just something as simple as a tabletop mount with a speaker wrapped around.

 

[albarran9]

I used my iPhone to watch a movie while on a trip once. It was kinda weird because I didn't feel like holding it and I couldn't find a good angle. Some sort of portable docking sound system that you could rotate would be nice for travelling. Maybe just something as simple as a tabletop mount with a speaker wrapped around.

I know exactly what you mean, my hand got tired after a while so I just ended up finishing the movie on my macbook.

 

[mrgreen4242]

my biggest pain is this

converting for ipod

i just wish i could use my already ripped digital files and not have to reconvert them (like how you can just resize a quicktime movie)

I rip all my DVDs to a AppleTV and iPod (touch) compatible file. They are nearly identical to the source DVD when played on my HDTV (30"). The difference is barely noticeable on my 96" 853*480 projection system.

I use Handbrake and these settings:

h.264 .mp4 file
Resolution 720x??? (keeping appropriate aspect ratio)
Constant Quality set at 64%
Autocrop on
Weak denoise filter
Audio: Track 1 - DPLII stereo mixdown at 48khz and 160kbps AAC, DRC@1.5
Track 2 - AC3 5.1 Passthrough
Track 3 (Optional for commentary track) - Stereo mixdown at 44.1khz and 96kbps AACm DRC@1.5
Subtitles: Autoselect, Forced subtitles only
Advanced settings: cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30

The advanced string is the key. It ensures both max quality while maintaining compatibility with ATV and iPod. As I said, the quality is great and the files size (including the "extra" un-recompressed 5.1 track) is between 1.5 and 2gb for most ~2 hour movies - it varies for each film semi-unpredictably because of the constant quality setting.

 

[godslabrat]

Never at home, but when on the go, sure.

 

[DavidClassic]

I watch video on my iPod all the time. It's what I use it for the most. I do agree that it is annoying to hold the iPod, so I usually only watch it when I have something to lean it on.

I hope to have all my movies ready in iPod format on my iTunes ready to sync to my iPod.

 

[dukebound85]

I rip all my DVDs to a AppleTV and iPod (touch) compatible file. They are nearly identical to the source DVD when played on my HDTV (30"). The difference is barely noticeable on my 96" 853*480 projection system.

I use Handbrake and these settings:

h.264 .mp4 file
Resolution 720x??? (keeping appropriate aspect ratio)
Constant Quality set at 64%
Autocrop on
Weak denoise filter
Audio: Track 1 - DPLII stereo mixdown at 48khz and 160kbps AAC, DRC@1.5
Track 2 - AC3 5.1 Passthrough
Track 3 (Optional for commentary track) - Stereo mixdown at 44.1khz and 96kbps AACm DRC@1.5
Subtitles: Autoselect, Forced subtitles only
Advanced settings: cabac=0:ref=2:analyse=all:me=umh:subq=6:no-fast-pskip=1:mixed-refs=1:merange=32:level=30

The advanced string is the key. It ensures both max quality while maintaining compatibility with ATV and iPod. As I said, the quality is great and the files size (including the "extra" un-recompressed 5.1 track) is between 1.5 and 2gb for most ~2 hour movies - it varies for each film semi-unpredictably because of the constant quality setting.

thanks i will have to start doing that

i wish there was a way that itunes could simply just transcode my preexisting files though as i put them on my ipod. doesnt it already do that somewhat with photos? heck my computer is fast enough lol

 

[Michael CM1]

I rip all my DVDs to a AppleTV and iPod (touch) compatible file. They are nearly identical to the source DVD when played on my HDTV (30"). The difference is barely noticeable on my 96" 853*480 projection system.

I do the same thing. I created my custom setting called "The One" that's kind of the best of all worlds. Looks good on MacBook Pro, plays on iPhone (without totally killing space), works on Apple TV (and looks decent). I do the full pixel size (720 by about 340 for 16x9 videos). 1000 average video bitrate, 160k audio, h.264 codec, mp4 file with .m4v extension. Not sure what all I did because I copied a lot from somewhere. Through much trial and error, I finally got it right.

I do wish the studios would allow ripping from DVDs like they do with CDs. iTunes could then be told to convert for iPhone or whatever when syncing, and we've got a fun new world.

 

[Michael CM1]

thanks i will have to start doing that

i wish there was a way that itunes could simply just transcode my preexisting files though as i put them on my ipod. doesnt it already do that somewhat with photos? heck my computer is fast enough lol

Amen. I alluded to that below. However, processing photos (maybe 5MB at the most for common photos) is different from processing video (that's when we start talking gigabytes). Probably will take until we get quad-core CPUs before this could be done without taking forrrrrever.

 

[skrutzen]

I encode strictly for my Apple TV. I might watch the occasional podcast or music video on my iPhone but I have not ripped any of my movies for iPhone use.

 

[BoulderBum]

I used my iPhone to watch a movie while on a trip once. It was kinda weird because I didn't feel like holding it and I couldn't find a good angle. Some sort of portable docking sound system that you could rotate would be nice for travelling. Maybe just something as simple as a tabletop mount with a speaker wrapped around.

I feel okay holding it for short periods, but for our recent Thanksgiving trip, we actually bought a portable DVD player with video-in and we bought the iPod TV-out VGA cable.

It's a bit of a pricey, but I figure we'd have two headphone jacks, and a bigger screen, and the ability to stand it up without holding it and mount it in our car for long road trips.